The Manhattan judge overseeing President-elect Donald Trump’s trial agreed to grant a stay of all deadlines associated with Trump’s felony sentencing process in the final months before he takes office, a closely watched decision that allows Trump avoids a maximum sentence of up to four years in prison.

The judge handling the case, Juan Merchán, granted the request, which dictates a suspension of all deadlines, including the Nov. 26 sentencing date, to consider the effect of his election as president.

Prosecutors had asked for a pause in the proceedings, which they said would allow them to better assess the impact of Trump’s new status as president-elect.

“The people agree that these are unprecedented circumstances,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said in a letter to Judge Merchan.

Trump’s lawyers, who had filed a motion to dismiss the charges entirely, also supported the stay.

Trump was convicted in May of a manhattan jury on 34 counts of falsifying business records, stemming from a case involving payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels.

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Former President Donald Trump, left, speaks at the end of the day with his lawyer Todd Blanche during his trial over financial records in Manhattan. (Michael M. Santiago/Pool via USA TODAY NETWORK)

Merchan agreed earlier this year to a four-month delay to court proceedings, pushing next steps until after the 2024 presidential election.

He had set Nov. 12 as a self-imposed deadline to decide the best way to proceed.

The decision comes after The Supreme Court said in a July 1 ruling that presidents should enjoy presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution for most actions taken as president.

The justices writing for a 4-3 majority said presidents are entitled to absolute immunity from any action taken within the scope of “basic constitutional powers” as commander in chief.

A presumption of immunity also applies to other actions taken while in office, they said.

However, it is unclear whether a president should be granted the same level of constitutional protection for state convictions, and the issue has never been examined in court.

Trump officials praised the pause in court proceedings Tuesday. Trump spokesman Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital that the pause makes it “very clear that Americans want an immediate end to the militarization of our justice system, including this case… so that we can unify our country and work together for the betterment of our nation.”

The Nov. 12 deadline is separate from the sentencing hearing for the 34 convictions, which had previously been set for Nov. 26.

Rather, it was a self-imposed deadline by Merchan that allows him to consider Trump’s claims about presidential immunity and whether the Supreme Court’s July ruling on the scope of immunity should apply at the state level.

Even if Trump’s convictions are upheld, the president-elect has countless ways to appeal the case or get the charges against him dismissed before his Nov. 26 sentencing hearing, making it almost certain that he will not face time after the bars.

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Former President Donald Trump, left, attends the first day of his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on April 15. Judge Juan Merchán poses for a photograph in his office on March 14 in New York. (Angela Weiss/AFP via AP, POOL/AP)

The first would be to move the case from state court to federal court, something Trump’s lawyers had tried twice and failed to do in the months before the election. However, his request to elevate the case to federal court now carries more weight, given Trump’s status as president-elect.

If that fails, Trump’s lawyers will likely appeal the convictions before his sentencing hearing, using the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling as a basis for dismissing the charges.

They are also likely to use the immunity claim to throw out parts of the evidence used by prosecutors in the New York case, including testimony from former White House communications director Hope Hicks.

Even if all this fails, legal analysts and former prosecutors have flatly dismissed the idea of ​​Trump facing prison time for the convictions.

“Understand, Trump will not go to prison even if Merchan imposes a prison sentence. Although the charges are felonies, they are not serious enough under New York law to merit immediate detention; Trump will be released on bail pending appeal,” said Andrew McCarthy, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, wrote in an opinion piece last week for Fox News Digital.

Judge Juan M. Merchán poses in his office in New York on March 14, 2024 in this file photograph. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Had Merchan decided to keep the convictions intact, he could have sought additional guidance from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, including on whether Trump should be subject to state convictions as a sitting president, an issue that has never been tested.

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Trump’s legal team would almost certainly have appealed any conviction to the extent that the supreme courtif required.

Trump is protected from federal convictions thanks to a long-standing Justice Department policy that prevents U.S. prosecutors from prosecuting a sitting president.

However, this precedent has never been applied to state convictions, giving Judge Merchan somewhat greater latitude to decide how to proceed.

Main entrance to the Trump Tower building in Manhattan. (Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images)

His decision comes days after special counsel Jack Smith filed a motion to vacate all deadlines in the 2020 election interference case against President-elect Trump in Washington, DC.

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Smith had been hired by Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 to investigate both the alleged effort by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and Trump’s keeping of allegedly classified documents at his Florida residence after to leave the White House. in 2020.

While those charges have not been officially dropped, the special counsel appears to be moving in that direction, and Smith said his team plans to give an update on the official status of the case against Trump on Dec. 2.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr told Fox News Digital that state and local prosecutors and judges must leave behind the “spectacle” of prosecuting the president-elect.